Chronic Constipation

[tonystarksrighthand]

Posted in General health too but hoping for more traffic!

Ghastly subject.

For years I've suffered with chronic constipation.

I've not helped myself and not stuck at any kind of routine with diet or supplements etc.

Can anyone suggest any methods.

Doctor is NO help. Fed up with constantly being fobbed off to increase water intake (I'll drown if I drink anymore!)

Prunes? Fybogel? Probiotics?

I would welcome any suggestions. I'm so fed up!

Things that help me are prunes or any dried fruits, apples,strong coffee or a friend sweared by a coffee and a fag!

Oh I forgot Exercise is supposed to move things on a bit.

DC have had this. They had a manual evacuation when they were young but got blocked up again. To clear they get put on high doses of movicol and once they are clear, they stay on a maintenance dose of movicol.

I've been like this for as long as I can remember, probably due to a combination of a genetic condition and an underactive thyroid.

Tried all sorts over the years, now I just take a daily sachet of movicol or cosmocol, which is enough to keep me regular.

Thank you. I'll look into movicol.

All of @Perihell suggestions are good,
Prunes and fybogel are both good; exercise - brisk walk can be enough but lots of Hiit like squats.
Coffee is also good, but also cut out or down on bread and white starchy foods
Also sometimes we need to be more male - as in take time to sit on the loo , possibly using a low stool to help things .

Fruit and fruit based drinks are generally helpful. I think water is supposed to help as well.

My dd's chronic constipation (originally helped with lots of movicol, tons of water) turned out to be lactose intolerance.

I take Movicol when struggling. You can buy it over the counter from the chemist.

I suffer as side effect of meds and linseed has been a gamechanger for me, having tried everything. Must be accompanied by plenty of water as that’s what activates it - but sounds like you have that part sorted. Take tablespoon 3 times a day until regular, then once day to maintain

Another one recommending Movicol. I take codeine painkillers which really can bung you up, but one sachet a day does the trick. Sometimes I do forget to take it, so have to take several sachets in one day to get everything moving again. I buy it from an online chemist. You don't need a prescription either.

Movicol is far the best treatment imo. It suspends fluid in the bowel to make it much easier to have a poo. My dc have taken this daily for years as nothing else works for their chronic constipation.

Did you have a sample analysed?
In a case I know they found that almost none of the healthy gut bacteria were contained in the sample (bc. of medication in her case) and they had to 'reseed' the gut to solve the problem. Took a while but worked.

I have this too due to an underactive thyroid despite drowning in water and vegetables. It’s genuinely so painful every time I manage to go to the toilet.
For me exercise 100% works as well as fruit. If it’s been more than 3-4 days since I last went I’ll make a smoothie with loads of fruit and that definitely works very quickly

Fibre is normally good but for some people it can make it worse so worth keeping in mind when trying eating more fibre or havinhlg stool bulking supplements/medication

Once you've got things moving again, with the help of Movicol, ensure that you eat a wide variety of vegetables and fruit every day - and lots of them!
Don't eat any white bread, white rice, white pasta or other highly processed, low fibre foods.
Add milled linseed/flaxseed and dried fruit to breakfast cereals and eat 8 - 10 prunes every evening.
Don't forget to drink plenty of water, tea or coffee (but without sugar) throughout the day.

Try dulcosoft, it draws water into the colon and my partner who has tried all sorts says it helps. Some foods are harder to digest like meat, gluten etc. But that diet was too restrictive so he now uses dulcosoft which has helped

I used to take a sachet of Fybogel in water after each meal, and that worked well.

I now find that if I have a bowl of home made muesli for breakfast with fruit, eat half a dozen prunes a day and drink plenty of water, that works fine.

I lived in France one summer for two months and ate huge amounts of fresh fruit - mainly peaches and nectarines - and no problems at all.

My mil's lifelong problem was fixed by two weetabix and prunes for breakfast every day, and a walk.

She'd been on medication and all sorts, but the above worked.

I have prunes and coffee when this is an issue. Works pretty swiftly!

No s**t!

Horrible, isn’t it. Try ground physillium husk and couple of tablespoons in your cereal - acts like Velcro in colon to sweep up waste. I’m also having good results with Laxido prescribed by doctor. Good luck.

I’m the same and am working my way through constipation remedies. To be honest laxatives make it worse but when it gets desperate then needs must. Find it x100 worse week before period. Am drinking a glass of kefir goats milk every morning g to try and restore the health of my gut, also stool softener, water etc. Find hot water with fresh lemon works wonders too

I've not found a cure yet. I take Fybogel twice daily, drink 4 pints of water and have a minimum of 10 portions of fruit and veg daily but found nothing really works. Tried magnesium citrate, sugar free sweets, Movicol (really salty and just made me bloated even after 8 sachets a day for a week), suppositories and exercise. Also Laxative teas.

The only thing that helps me is Dulcolax ( tried all the natural laxatives too). I limit it to every fortnight as they're not great to take regularly and I have to take a double dose. That's literally the only thing that works for me.

Nightly magnesium tablet.